UMASS/AMHERST  « 

III 


aiaobbDDSiofcba? 


MASSACHUSETTS 
STATE    COLLEGE 


LIBRARY 


S 

523 

D6 


ADDRESS, 

AT  NORTHAMPTON,  OCTOBER  11,  1826, 

TO  THE  SOCIETY  OF  THE  COUNTIES  OF 

aASlEPSaiRE,    FRANKI.IN   AND    KAMPDEN, 

FOR    THE    PROMOTION    OP 

^grtculture  antr  tJie  Wfcfiantc  ^vtn, 

BY  HON.  MARK  DOOLITTLK 


He  that  tilleth  his  land  shall  have  plenty  of  bread  ;   but  he  thai; 
followeth  after  vain  persons  shall  have  poverty  enough." 


NORTHAMPTON  '. 
PRINTED    BY   T.    WATSON   SHEPAED. 

1826, 


South  Hadley,  October  12,  1826, 
Hon.  Mark  Doolittle, 

Dear  Sir — I  'lave  the  pleasure  to  communicate  to  you  the  follow- 
ing vote,  passed  at  the  meeting-  of  the  Hampshire,  Franklin  and 
Hampden  Agricultural  Society,  the  11th  inst. 

Voted — That  the  thanks  of  this  Society  be  presented  to  the 
Hon.  Mark  Doolittle,  for  his  interesting  and  eloquent  address  deliv- 
ered this  day,  and  that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  a  copy  for  the  press. 

Voted — That  Messrs.  Strong,  of  South  Hadley,  Shepherd,  of 
Northampton,  and  Mills,  of  Worthington,  be  a  committee  to  commu- 
nicate the  above  vote. 

JOSEPH  STRONG,  Per  order  of  said  Committee. 


Belchertown,  October  18,  1826. 
Hon.  Joseph  Strong  &  others,  Committee, 

Gentlemen — Yours  of  the  12th  inst.  communicating  the  above 
vote,  was  received  the  14th.  Please  to  accept  my  acknowledgments 
to  the  Society  which  you  represent  for  the  approbation  of  the  address 
expressed  by  it — a  copy  of  which  is  at  your  disposal. 

With  much  respect,  I  am,  gentlemen,  yours,  &c. 

M.  DOOLITTLE. 


The  season  has  returned,  my  fellow  citizens,  when 
the  industrious  inhabitants  of  Old  Hampshire  have 
annually  assembled  for  eight  years  past,  rejoicing 
in  the  blessings  of  a  beneficent  Providence  upon 
the  labor  of  their  hands.  The  period  when  the 
crops  of  the  earth  are  matured  and  the  husband- 
man is  gathering  the  fruits  of  his  summer's  toil 
and  casting  his  thoughts  forward  to  the  comforts 
which  they  promise,  is  especially  suited  for  a  tri- 
bute of  gratitude  to  the  great  bestower  of  all  our 
mercies. 

The  cultivation  of  the  earth  was  the  original 
employment  of  man.  It  is  the  support  of  every 
other — the  stock  of  which  all  others  are  the  bran- 
ches. The  necessities  of  the  husbandman  in  his 
pursuit  have  given  rise  to  numerous  classes  of  ar- 
tificers in  shaping  and  forming  the  productions  of 
nature  and  the  raw  material  to  meet  the  wants  of 
society,  and  from  the  first  ages  of  the  world  a 
knowledge  of  the  mechanic  arts  has  been  insepar- 

:^'  ably  connected  with  the  successful  cultivation  of 

.Tthe  earth. 


Probably  no  time  has  ever  been  better  suited 
for  improvement  in  the  various  and  useful  labors 
of  civilized  life  than  the  present.     The  world  is 
comparatively  at  peace — science  is  shedding  her 
lights  upon  objects  hitherto  obscured — the  inter- 
course between  the  inhabitants  of  distant  latitudes 
is  easy  and  constant — there  is  a  feeling  and  a 
sympathy  manifested  at  the  sufferings  of  the  de- 
graded and  enslaved  inhabitants  of  one  portion  of 
the  earth,  and  at  the  superstitious  and  barbarous 
cruelties  of  another,  which  were  never  awaked  in 
the  breasts  of  those  who  lived  in  other  times. 
These  feelings  and  these  sympathies  have  burst 
forth  into  the  most  active  energies  for  the  relief 
of  suffering   humanity.      The   improvements  we 
make  are  rapidly  carried  by  the  assisting  elements 
to  the  most  distant  lands.     Asia  and  the  Isles  of 
the  sea  are  gathering  fruits,  the  growth  of  Ameri- 
can culture.     Every  ray  of  light  cast  upon  the 
dark  places  of  the  earth  discovers  new  objects  to 
be  accomplished,  new  wants  to  be  supplied,  and 
new  sufferings  to  be  relieved.     Were  it  not  for 
the  continued  and  persevering  efforts  of  benevo- 
lent individuals  and  societies  of  men  directly  ap- 
plied to  supply  the  necessities  and  to  elevate  the 
characters  of  their  species,  the  world  would  pre- 
sent but  one  uniform  spectacle  of  a  wide  spread 
desolation.     Cast  your  thoughts  for  a  moment  up- 
on the  places  which  were  the  boast  of  other  days, 
the  very  names  of  Avhich  were  interchangeable 
for  wealth,  for  grandeur  and  magnificence,  and 
where  are  they  ?   Where  is  the  extensive  and  en~ 
terprizing  commerce  of  the  Phenicians,  and  the 


wealth  of  Alexandria  and  Tyre  drawn  from  the 
highly  cultivated  regions  of  India?  The  hand  of 
diligence  which  once  rendered  the  borders  of  the 
Ganges  and  the  Tigris  abundant  in  the  richest 
fruits,  has  long  since  resigned  the  territory  to  in- 
dolence and  poverty.  Even  Canaan,  above  all 
lands  distinguished  for  the  fertility  of  its  soil  and 
the  deliciousness  of  its  fruits,  described  by  the 
pen  of  inspiration  to  be  "  a  good  land — a  land  of 
wheat  and  of  barley  and  vines  and  fig-trees  and 
pomegranates  and  oil  and  honey,  whose  inhabi- 
tants should  eat  bread  without  scarceness,  and  not 
lack  any  thing  in  it,"  even  that  land  has  long  since 
been  over-run  by  the  footsteps  of  the  Barbarian, 
and  is  now  a  waste,  under  the  desolations  of  Turk- 
ish despotism.  Such  is  the  present  aspect  of  the 
soil,  says  a  late  traveller  there,  that  "we  ^should 
judge  that  nature  itself  had  rendered  it  incapable 
of  cultivation." 

The  recent  attempts  of  some  of  the  European 
nations  and  of  the  American  states,  to  redeem  de- 
graded Asia  from  its  miserable  condition  have 
been  attended  with  success  in  some  parts ;  in 
others  they  are  still  in  the  most  abject  state-^not 
the  least  improvement  has  been  made  in  their  me- 
chanical or  agricultural  operations  for  two  thou- 
sand years.  To  this  time  the  tools  of  the  carpen- 
ter are  nothing  but  the  plane,  the  chisel,  the  ham- 
mer, and  the  hatchet — the  earth  is  the  shop- 
board,  and  three  days  are  spent  in  performing  the 
labor  which  a  Hampshire  mechanic  would  accom- 
plish in  a  single  hour.  The  blacksmith  travels  for 
his  employment  with  the  whole  of  his  apparatus 


6 

upon  his  back.  Their  implements  of  agriculture 
are  very  rude  and  imperfectly  formed ;  the  plough 
consists  of  two  or  three  pieces  of  wood  put  togeth- 
er in  the  most  clumsy  manner,  or  perhaps  a  single 
crooked  stick — the  hoe  and  the  sickle  of  equally 
ill  adaptation  for  the  use  designed.  Their  labor 
is  performed  in  the  most  indolent  and  slovenly 
manner.  In  the  morning  of  a  harvest  day  the 
Hindoo  peasant  goes  with  his  sickle  to  the  field 
of  labor,  and  at  night  binds  the  gleanings  of  the 
whole  day  in  a  single  bundle,  and  with  it  on  his 
back  repairs  to  his  cottage.  The  average  price 
of  a  day's  labor  is  about  two  and  a  half  cents. 

In  this  condition  those  people  have  their  fairs 
too — annually,  triennially,  or  once  in  twelve  years 
they  assemble  upon  the  banks  of  a  consecrated 
river,  in  countless  multitudes,  bringing  their  flocks 
and  their  herds  with  them ;  and  what  think  you  is 
the  business  of  that  assembly  ?  They  buy  and  they 
sell,  some  beasts  they  offer  in  sacrifice  and  some 
they  worship  as  objects  of  adoration ;  but  the  great 
business  of  the  assembly  is  to  perform  a  pilgrimage 
and  pay  their  vows  to  an  idol  god. 

It  is  a  most  interesting  subject  for  investigation 
to  trace  the  connexion  between  a  free  government 
established  and  administered  by  an  intelligent,  in- 
dustrious and  virtuous  population,  and  the  im- 
provement in  ever}^  thing  which  enriches  and 
strengthens  a  nation  and  elevates  the  characters 
of  men.  In  despotic  governments  industry  is  par- 
alyzed. It  is  a  fact  which  history  authorises  us  to 
assert,  that  neither  agriculture  nor  its  kindred  arts 
have  ever  attained  to  a  high  elevation  under  des- 


potic  power.  The  same  debasing  ignorance  which 
chains  the  minds  of  men  to  servile  devotion  under 
arbitrary  power,  will  chain  their  animal  functions 
to  the  business  of  a  brute — they  will  do  no  more 
than  they  are  compelled  to  do. — The  first  object 
of  a  good  government  is  to  provide  for  all  its 
members,  and  to  bring  within  their  reach  the 
means  of  making  them  comfortable  and  happy. 
To  the  accomplishment  of  this  object  our  govern- 
ment and  our  laws — our  civil  and  religious  institu- 
tions— our  soil  and  our  climate,  lend  a  helping 
hand — no  despot  to  wield  the  rod  of  oppression 
Over  the  lives  and  fortunes  of  men — no  religious 
hierarchy  to  feast  a  sordid  and  pampered  appetite 
upon  the  credulities  of  a  deluded  populace — no 
feudal  system  requiring  the  service  and  active 
energies  of  the  many  to  gratify  the  pride  and  ca- 
price of  the  few.  The  fatal  effects  of  feudal  ten- 
ures upon  agricultural  improvements  have  been 
witnessed  all  over  Europe  for  many  centuries — to 
this  day  England  has  a  rent-charge  upon  large 
portions  of  her  lands  which  render  them  incapable 
of  alienation,  and  the  value  of  her  landed  estates 
which  are  yet  tithable  is  about  one  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars  annually. 

The  allodial  tenures  by  which  the  New  Eng- 
land farmer  holds  his  estate — our  statutes  of  dis- 
tributions and  barring  entailments  are  important 
in  advancing  the  interests  of  agriculture.  The 
sciences,  which  m  times  past  have  been  confined 
to  halls  of  learning,  are  lending  their  aids  in  the 
practical  business  of  life.  The  discoveries  within 
the  last  fitty  years,  in  the  sciences  of  chemistry 


8   -' 

and  geology,  have  added  much  to  the  means  of 
agricultural  improvement.  A  knowledge  of  the 
combinations  of  the  different  kinds  of  earth — of 
vegetable  mould,  and  the  various  manures  which 
give  sustenance  to  plants,  are  highly  important  to 
the  practical  farmer.  In  our  progress  we  shall 
find  many  prejudices  to  be  overcome  and  many 
errors  to  be  corrected.  The  grandest  improve- 
ments in  the  arts  have  been  opposed  with  most 
determined  obstinacy.  The  first  attempts  oi  Jlrk- 
wright  in  his  labor  saving  machinery,  saving  forty- 
nine  fiftieths  of  the  labor,  was  resisted  even  to 
blood,  and  that  indefatigable  man  was  compelled 
for  years  to  wander  from  place  to  place  with  se- 
crecy in  his  operations.  The  same  delusions 
which  possessed  the  minds  of  the  people  at  Lan- 
cashire and  Nottingham  half  a  century  since,  in 
relation  to  these  mventions,  now  pervade  the 
minds  of  some  of  the  South  Americans  on  the 
same  subject 

Until  the  opinions  of  men  shall  be  governed  by 
evidence  rather  than  prejudice,  very  little  advance- 
ment will  be  made  in  our  progress  after  truth  on 
any  subject,  whether  it  be  physics  or  mechanics — 
morals  or  religion. 

Industry  is  the  great  source  of  individual  and 
national  prosperity.  The  best  mode  of  applying 
it  to  relieve  the  wants  and  necessities  of  society 
is  the  grand  secret  which  should  engage  the  at- 
tention of  men  in  their  progress  to  wealth  and 
distinction.  It  is  a  trite  remark,  that  whatever  is 
worth  doing  is  worth  well  doing.  This  is  pre- 
eminently true  in  the  business  of  agriculture. — 


9 

The  farmer  who  grasps  at  more  land  for  improve- 
ment than  he  can  cultivate  to  advantage,  pursues 
a  mistaken  policy ;  some  portion  of  it  must  run 
to  waste.  If  a  debt  has  accrued  in  the  acquisition 
the  chance  is  against  him  that  the  avails  of  his 
labor  will  ere  long  find  their  way  into  the  pocket 
of  a  mortgagee  under  a  foreclosure.  The  idle 
and  slovenly  farmer  is  at  best  but  a  co-tenant,  in 
his  crops,  with  the  beasts  which  are  continually 
preying  upon  them,  and  with  the  basest  vegeta- 
bles in  the  freehold  possession.  He  who  contents 
himself  year  after  year  with  fifteen  or  twenty  hun- 
dred of  hay,  or  twenty  bushels  of  corn  upon  an 
acre  of  his  best  land  lacks  the  skill  or  industry  of 
the  prosperous  farmer.  There  has  been  great 
neglect  in  providing  those  enriching  substances 
which  are  peculiarly  nutritious  to  the  vegetable 
kingdom.  The  labor  of  a  single  day  in  providing 
compost,  under  advantageous  circumstances,  when 
properly  applied,  will  do  more  in  filling  your  barns 
and  corn-cribs,  than  four  times  the  labor  spent 
upon  a  poor  and  barren  soil.  The  farmer  should 
learn  the  defects  in  the  soil  which  he  cultivates, 
and  what  can  best  be  applied  to  cure  those  de- 
fects and  increase  its  fertility.  If  your  lands  are 
too  moist,  add  that  which  will  render  them  less 
moist — for  marshy  ground  it  is  found  that  sand  is 
the  best  manure ;  if  your  lands  are  too  dry,  of  not 
sufficient  capacity  to  retain  moisture,  apply  the 
gleanings  from  your  ditches  and  marshes  ;  if  your 
lands  are  too  adhesive,  apply  marl  and  ashes  ;  if 
there  is  an  excess  of  calcareous  earth,  says  Sir 
John  Sinclair,  "  apply  sand  and  clay  ;  to  soils  with 


10 

acids  or  salts  of  iron  apply  calcareous  earth."  By 
a  combination  of  these,  a  manure  is  formed  very 
advantageous  to  the  growth  of  vegetation.  Some 
soils  will  receive  incalculable  advantage  from  an 
application  which  would  be  injurious  to  others. 
The  best  method  of  applying  vegetable  manure  is 
to  turn  it  under  the  furrow,  and  the  fos?  to  remain 
upon  the  surface ;  the  reason  for  this  is  the  oppo- 
site effects  which  the  earth  and  the  atmosphere 
have  upon  the  different  substances ;  the  vegetable 
tending  to  the  surface  and  to  evaporation,  and  the 
fossil  tending  to  the  earth ;  by  such  an  application 
they  act  upon  each  other  in  the  best  possible  mode 
to  give  life  and  energy  to  vegetation.  When  the 
manuring  is  by  turning  under  a  green  crop,  a  slight 
dressing  with  gypsum  or  lime  is  highly  beneficial. 
Upon  those  lands  where  you  do  not  use  the  plough 
after  a  dressing  of  vegetable  manure  to  apply  im- 
mediately a  small  portion  of  the  fossil  produces  a 
more  rapid  decomposition  of  the  vegetable  and  an 
incorporation  with  the  soil  most  conducive  to  the 
growth  of  a  healthy  vegetation. 

In  tillage  land  it  is  believed  to  be  a  common 
fault  that  the  earth  is  not  turned  to  a  sufficient 
depth.  I  am  aware  that  different  opinions  prevail 
on  this  subject ;  but  from  well  tested  experiments 
which  have  been  made,  it  has  been  satisfactorily 
proved  that  shallow  ploughing  is  injurious — the 
root  of  the  plant  cannot  procure  the  requisite  nour- 
ishment. To  make  the  earth  productive,  it  is  es- 
sential that  the  atmosphere  act  upon  it,  and  the 
more  earth  which  comes  under  the  influence  of 
heat  and  cold  and  atmospheric  moisture,  the  more 


11 

invigorating  power  is  given  to  it  to  sustain  a  luxu- 
riant growth.  Again,  by  this  method  of  culture, 
the  earth  absorbs  more  water  and  retains  its  mois- 
ture a  greater  length  of  time  and  at  the  same  time 
is  less  liable  to  have  water  remain  upon  the  sur- 
face. Many  useful  and  well  directed  experiments 
have  been  made  both  in  Europe  and  this  country 
in  this  branch  of  agriculture.  In  Flanders  deep 
ploughing  has  greatly  improved  their  soil — it  has 
been  uniformly  adopted  there  for  many  years^ — no 
part  of  Europe  is  more  fertile.  The  horticulturists 
near  London  plough  their  lands  a  foot  in  depth — 
no  lands  are  more  productive. 

Good  fences  are  essential  to  the  good  manage- 
ment of  a  farm  ;  to  say  nothing  of  the  additional 
security  to  crops,  or  the  time  saved  in  being  re- 
lieved from  continued  calls  to  remove  from  mis- 
chief the  trespassing  herds,  or  the  expense  saved 
in  law-suits  (which  are  often  produced  as  a  conse- 
quence,) by  providing  exterior  fences — there  is 
great  actual  gain  in  partitioning  your  fields  into 
enclosures  of  moderate  extent.  The  result  of  cal- 
culation on  this  subject  is  that  a  given  territory  of 
forty  or  fifty  acres,  applied  to  pasturage,  will  sup- 
port 20  per  cent,  more  stock,  when  divided  into 
three  or  four  separate  enclosures,  than  when  in 
one  general  field. 

The  cultivation  of  the  grasses  is  an  important 
branch  in  the  business  of  the  practical  farmer. 
Linneus  has  given  us  an  account  of  not  less  than 
fifty  different  genera,  which  are  cultivated  in  Eng- 
land. There  may  be  as  many  found  here ;  yet 
there  are  comparatively  but  few  cultivated  as  a 


12 

crop  upon  the  lands  of  the  New  England  farmer. 
More  attention  in  selecting  such  seeds  as  are  adapt- 
ed to  the  different  soils  and  to  each  other  in  the 
period  of  their  becoming  mature  for  the  scythe 
would  find  its  reward  in  the  results  produced.  It 
is  no  uncommon  prospect  when  casting  the  eye 
upon  the  meadows  of  even  our  best  farmers,  to 
witness  some  portions  of  the  crop  nearly  or  quite 
fit  for  gathering,  and  another  portion  just  beginning 
to  come  forward.  When  the  latter  has  become 
mature  the  former  has  become  nearly  worthless. 
This  may  be  the  case  when  the  grasses  are  indig- 
enous to  the  soil ;  and  it  frequently  arises  from  the 
practice  of  stocking  lands  from  the  gleanings  of 
the  floors  and  mangers  of  the  barn  "  where  every 
plant,  good  and  noxious,  has  left  its  seeds."  It 
has  been  found  by  experiment  that  many,  and  is 
probably  the  case  with  most,  kinds  of  grass,  that 
they  flourish  upon  soils  where  they  are  never  found 
till  they  are  sown  as  a  crop.  The  red  clover,  al- 
though an  exotic  plant,  has  proved  to  be  a  most 
profitable  grass  here  as  well  as  in  England,  where 
it  was  introduced  about  two  hundred  and  fifty  years 
since  from  Holland.  Such  suspicions  were  enter- 
tained of  its  utility  in  England  that  it  did  not  gain 
a  general  use  there  till  within  fifty  years.  It  is 
more  beneficial  to  the  soil  than  any  of  the  grasses. 
The  principal  cause  of  its  fertilizing  properties  is 
the  broad  leaf,  which  imbibes  more  nutriment  from 
the  atmosphere  than  any  other.  It  is,  however, 
not  durable ;  hence  other  grasses  should  be  cast 
with  it  in  the  seeding.  Some  of  the  best  farmers 
in  the  northern  states  recommend  the  oat  grass 


13 

and  orchard  grass  as  the  most  suitable.  The  more 
usual  practice  in  this  vicinity  has  been  to  sow  the 
herds  grass  with  it.  The  principal  objection  to 
this  practice  is  that  the  clover  is  mature  for  the 
scythe  fifteen  days  earlier  than  the  other  grass, 
which  affords  double  the  nutriment,  says  Judge 
Buel,  when  cut  in  the  seed,  to  what  it  does  when 
cut  in  the  flower.  Perhaps  no  grass  gives  a  better 
reward  for  cultivation  than  the  herds  grass  ;  it  is 
indigenous;  so  is  the  white  clover  and  red  top, 
which  afford,  by  attentive  cultivation,  rich  and 
abundant  pastures. 

I  am  well  satisfied  that  more  attention  to  the 
cultivation  of  Millet  would  prove  profitable  to  the 
farmers  of  old  Hampshire.  This  grain  is  a  native 
of  India ;  it  has  for  a  long  period  been  cultivated 
with  great  success  and  profit  in  the  south  of  Eu- 
rope, and  farther  north  than  our  latitude.  Its  pa- 
trons in  the  New  England  and  the  middle  states 
have  found  their  reward  in  their  attention  to  it. 
To  the  Pennsylvania  Agricultural  Society,  Judge 
Washington  says,  "I  have  obtained  this  season 
(1823)  forty  tons  from  sixteen  acres,  of  which  only 
four  had  been  manured ;  and  my  cattle  of  all  sorts 
prefer  it  to  white  or  red  clover  meadow  hay," — 
Again,  says  Mr.  Powell,  of  Philadelphia,  "  Sheep 
are  particularly  fond  of  millet  grass,  but  not  more 
so  than  horses  and  other  stock."  It  has  been  cul- 
tivated to  a  considerable  extent  in  the  eastern 
counties  of  this  Commonwealth,  and  has  very  gen- 
erally been  approved  by  the  farmers  of  Essex, 
Middlesex  and  Worcester.  It  has  been  less  raised 
within  our  limits  and  Berkshire,  though  some  at- 


14 

tention  has  been  given  to  it  in  the  western  section 
of  the  state.  The  soil  best  suited  to  it  is  a  light 
loam  possessing  a  good  degree  of  strength.  Upon 
such  a  soil,  the  seed  which  you  will  obtain  will 
usually  exceed,  in  value,  a  crop  of  oats  upon  the 
same  ground,  though  not  over  two  thirds  the  quan- 
tity ;  the  greatest  profit  in  the  crop  will  be  found, 
however,  in  the  straw  for  fodder ;  and  should  it 
never  be  used  for  farinaceous  purposes  it  would 
be  found  a  profitable  crop.  Its  effect  in  the  de- 
struction of  weeds  is  much  the  same  as  that  of  red 
clover ;  it  probably  draws  more  nutriment  from 
the  atmosphere  than  most  other  crops — it  is  less 
exhausting  to  the  soil  than  oats — it  should  be 
sown  about  the  tenth  of  June,  and  will  be  fit  for 
harvest  the  last  of  August. 

Those  gentlemen  who  have  made  exertion  for 
the  improvement  of  our  live  stock,  by  importations 
from  abroad,  deserve  the  thanks  of  the  American 
farmer.  The  animals  now  reared  amongst  us  are, 
no  doubt,  superior  to  what  they  would  have  been, 
had  they  not  been  improved  in  this  way.  Our 
farmers,  however,  will  find  it  mistaken  policy  to 
rely  upon  this  source  for  permanent  improvement 
in  this  branch  of  husbandry.  There  is  no  neces- 
sity for  continuing  it.  Stock  can  be  found  in  va- 
rious sections  of  our  country  which  would  not  suf- 
fer by  a  comparison  with  the  best  which  Europe 
can  afford  All  that  is  necessary  is  care  in  the 
selection  of  those  that  are  preserved.  Let  the 
drover  and  the  butcher  take  such  as  are  least  use- 
ful to  keep.  In  this  way  have  the  best  breeds  in 
Europe  been  procured.     Such  has  been  the  mode 


15 

of  Bakewell,  of  Princeps,  and  the  CoUings',  and 
all  who  have  been  distinguished  for  rearing  the 
best  breeds  in  England.  Mistaken  views  have 
prevailed  with  some  of  our  farmers  in  selecting 
with  an  especial  reference  to  the  size  of  the  ani- 
mal— that  is  of  little  importance  when  compared 
with  shape  and  form.  It  seems  to  have  been  for- 
gotten that  the  animal  requires  food  in  proportion 
to  the  size,  other  things  being  equal.  The  ordin- 
ary weight  of  an  ox  in  England,  one  hundred  and 
twenty  years  ago,  was  about  380,  and  they  were 
a  useful  and  profitable  stock.  A  few  years  later 
the  fashion  changed,  and  many  of  the  English  far- 
mers were  engaged  in  introducing  a  race  of  ani- 
mals from  Holland  of  the  opposite  extreme.  The 
introduction  of  this  breed  proved  most  injurious 
to  the  English  farmer.  Now  the  best  animals 
there,  as  here,  are  not  of  either  extreme.  The 
ox  that  weighs  800  or  1000,  with  good  grass  feed, 
is  more  useful  in  life,  and  more  profitable  for  the 
slaughter,  than  those  of  the  largest  size  ;  and  the 
beef  in  the  English  markets,  with  equal  fattening, 
commands  a  better  price. 

We  find  ourselves,  on  this  occasion,  in  a  field  so 
vast,  and  the  objects  around  us  so  various,  that  a 
moment's  time  only  can  be  devoted  to  any,  while 
many  must  be  passed  by  unnoticed. 

The  importance  of  our  manufacturing  operations 
to  the  agricultural  interest  is  too  great  to  be  left 
in  silence.  The  shuttle  is  hardly  less  necessary 
to  the  success  of  the  farmer  than  the  plough.  The 
opinion  which  some  have  entertained,  that  manu- 
factories were  injurious  to  agriculture,  is  most  ab- 


16 

surd.  These  establishments  raise  the  value  of  the 
land  of  the  farmer;  they  raise  the  price  of  all 
which  the  land  produces  ;  they  furnish  the  means 
of  support  to  a  much  larger  population,  upon  a 
given  territory,  than  could  otherwise  be  support- 
ed ;  they  are  necessary  to  the  independence  and 
prosperity  of  a  people.  The  manufactories  of 
Great  Britain  have  contributed,  more  than  all  oth- 
er causes  united,  to  increase  the  wealth,  the  pow- 
er, and  the  commercial  importance  of  that  king- 
dom. The  work  shops  for  every  quarter  of  the 
world  have  been  located  in  and  about  London, 
Liverpool  and  Manchester;  and  the  markets  in 
every  land  have  been  controlled  in  a  great  degree 
by  their  power.  The  present  pressure  upon  these 
establishments  in  England  has  arisen  from  an  at- 
tempt, on  their  part,  to  monopolize  the  markets  of 
the  world.  The  competition  which  they  have  met 
with  from  our  manufactories,  in  various  markets, 
for  the  last  six  years,  has  taught  them  as  effectu- 
ally that  we  can  clothe  ourselves,  as  they  were 
taught  fifty  years  ago,  that  we  could  govern  our- 
selves. 

This  monopolizing  policy  on  their  part,  may 
produce  for  us  what  the  despotic  laws  of  Germany 
and  the  Netherlands,  and  the  repeal  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  in  France,  did  for  England,  near  the  close 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  These  measures  pur- 
sued by  the  governments  on  the  continent  drove 
to  England  in  a  short  space  of  time  nearly  one 
million  of  their  best  and  most  industrious  citizens, 
carrying  with  them  a  great  portion  of  the  art,  skill 
and  enterprize  of  their  population.    These  events 


17 

were  seized  upon  by  William,  as  auspicious  to  thf' 
growth  of  the  English  manufactures.  Duties  were 
laid  upon  the  importation  of  some  articles,  and 
penalties  provided  against  the  introduction  of  oth- 
ers. Under  these  regulations  new  life  and  vigor 
was  infused  into  every  branch  of  industry.  The 
farmer,  the  mechanic,  and  the  merchant,  partici- 
pated in  the  wealth  which  followed.  It  was  not. 
however,  till  the  great  improvements  in  machinery 
by  Hargreave,  Arkwright,  and  their  cotemporaries. 
that  England  became  mature  in  her  manufacturing 
establishments.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  conceive 
of  the  increase  of  business  and  wealth  which  re- 
sulted to  the  nation  from  them.  For  forty  years 
next  previous  to  their  introduction,  the  exports  of 
England  had  increased  but  about  sixteen  millions 
of  dollars ;  in  thirty  years  next  succeeding  they 
increased  more  than  one  hundred  and  twenty  mil- 
lions of  dollars.  At  the  period  of  the  introduction 
of  these  improvements,  about  1772,  the  importa- 
tion of  cotton  was  very  limited  ;  probably  for  ten 
years  it  had  not  exceeded  one  and  a  half  millions 
of  pounds  annually ;  at  the  close  of  the  thirty  years 
it  was  but  a  little  short  of  sixty  millions  ;  and  al- 
though at  that  time  but  about  one  seventh  of  the 
manufactured  article  was  exported,  six  sevenths 
being  consumed  by  the  people,  they  employed 
thirty  thousand  tons  of  shipping  in  the  importation 
of  the  raw  material,  and  the  exportation  of  the 
one  seventh  of  the  fabrics,  and  about  fifty  millions 
of  dollars  were  annually  paid,  as  wages,  to  the  na- 
tive cotton  manufacturer  of  Great  Britain.  The 
value  of  the  manufactured  article,  in  relation  to 
3 


18 

the  raw  material,  was  as  great  as  twelve  to  one. 
The  population  in  these  districts  increased  with  a 
rapidity  wholly  disproportioned  to  the  other  parts 
of  the  kingdom. 

These  facts  do  but  faintly  exhibit  the  increase 
of  the  wealth  and  power  derived  from  her  manu- 
factories to  Great  Britain.  The  scene  is  now 
changed — she  is  reaping  the  fruits  of  her  indis- 
cretion in  attempting  to  monopolize  that  which 
was  the  preroga.tive  of  other  governments — a  fair 
participation  in  these  means  of  national  wealth 
and  prosperity.  When  we  are  told  that  a  single 
city  there  has  found  it  necessary  in  one  season  to 
raise  by  contribution  half  a  million  to  relieve  the 
distressed  manufacturers,  our  feeliiigs  of  compas- 
sion, rather  than  admiration,  are  awakened  at  the 
detail.  These  distresses  must,  however,  continue 
so  long  as  they  depend  upon  foreign  markets  for 
the  sale  of  such  a  proportion  of  their  fabrics. 

Although  the  duty  on  the  importation  of  wool- 
lens here  has  been,  under  our  tariff,  constantly  in- 
creasing, and  our  manufacturers  advancing  under 
that  protecting  duty,  yet  we  find  by  the  last  report 
of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that  the*  impor- 
tation of  woollens  from  Great  Britain,  for  the  year 
ending  30th  Sept.  1825,  exceeded  the  importations 
of  the  year  next  preceding  about  two  and  a  half 
millions  of  dollars.  This  fact  proves  the  extreme 
pressure  which  is  experienced  in  the  British  work 
shops,  and  at  the  same  time  affords  a  word  of  con- 
solation to  the  wool  grower  and  manufacturer  here. 
It  will  convince  them  that  the  present  diminished 
value  of  that  article  and  the  fabrics  from  it,  arises, 


19 

not  from  the  quantity  raised  here,  but  from  the 
redundancy  of  foreign  cloths  in  our  markets,  by 
reason  of  artificial  means,  which  must  be  of  short 
duration. 

We  need  not  look  abroad  to  witness  the  advance 
in  the  farmers  property  by  reason  of  manufactures. 
We  have  seen  it  in  this  state  and  within  our  own 
limits.  In  view  of  the  growth  of  these  establish- 
ments, a  question  has. arisen^  are  not  we  in  danger 
of  a  similar  fate  which  attended  the  British  manu- 
factories? In  answer  to  which,  we  say,  our  situa- 
tion  is  totally  different  from  theirs.  Of  the  two 
milHons  of  families  which  compose  the  population 
of  England,  (the  population  is  somewhat  larger 
than  here  assumed)  about  750,000  are  agricuttur- 
ists,  leaving  1,250,000  in  trade,  manufactures,  pro- 
fessions, and  other  employments.  In  the  United 
States  it  was  not  long  since  calculated  that  ten 
sixteenths  of  our  plopulation.were  agriculturists ; 
but  suppose  the  number  is  not  over  nine  sixteenths, 
it  places  us  at  a  safe  distance  from  the  causes  o|, 
their  troubles. 

A  wise  government  will  protect  its  own  manu- 
factories.— "  It  belongs  to  the  real  statesman,"  says 
Rosseau,  "  to  elevate  his  views  in  the  imposition 
of  taxes  above  the  mere  object  of  finance,  andcon- 
vert  them  into  useful  regulations."  If  the  little 
cloud  which  now  darkens  the  prospects  of  our 
manufacturers,  arose  from  causes  which  were  last- 
ing in  their  operations,  it  would  deserve  the  seri- 
ous consideration  of  government,  whether  sound 
policy  did  not  demand  an  increase  of  duty  on  the 
importation  of  rival  fabrics.     The  story  that  our 


20 

woollen  manufactories,  for  example,  were  suffered 
to  languish  under  a  tariff,  falsely  called  a  protect- 
ing dutj,  which  secured  the  sales  in  our  markets^ 
of  woollens  from  Great  Britain,  of  more  than  ten 
millions  of  dollars  annually,  would  be  viewed  by 
those  who  should  come  after  us  as  a  monument  of 
lasting  reproach  to  the  government  which  should 
suffer  it.  But  without  further  interference  of  gov- 
ernment it  is  confidently  believed  that  their  in- 
crease and  prosperity  is  sure,  and  that  the  period 
is  not  far  distant  when  New  England  will  be  to 
Southern  and  Western  America,  what  England  for 
a  long  period  has  been  to  the  eastern  continent. 

Economy  in  expenditure  is  as  important  as  in- 
dustry in  the  acquiring.  If  the  causes  for  which 
taxes  are  imposed  are  not  guarded  with  the  great- 
est vigilance,  and  limited  to  the  obvious  necessi- 
ties of  the  people,  they  become  sources  of  indi- 
vidual oppression.  Salaries  to  public  officers 
should  be  limited  to  a  reasonable  compensation 
to  services  rendered ;  but  the  great  danger  from 
increase  of  taxes  arises  not  from  this  source,  but 
lies  concealed  under  the  specious  and  alluring 
name  of  charitable  regulations.  With  such  a  cap- 
tion, burdensome  laws  may  find  a  passport  to  the 
pages  of  your  statute  books,  and  unsuspectingly 
impose  unnecessary  burdens  upon  the  people. — ■ 
Ample  provision  by  law  for  the  support  of  the 
poor,  is  an  inducement  to  idleness,  and  tends  to 
increase  the  number  of  the  poor  and  the  profligate. 
Many  wise  men  have  doubted  the  policy  of  mak- 
ing any  provision  by  law  on  this  subject,  and  when 
we  look  at  England  and  Scotland  we  see  that  such 


21 

a  doubt  may  well  be  entertained.  Scotland  has 
no  pauper  laws,  and  comparatively  no  paupers. 
England  has  been  legislating  on  the  subject  for 
ages,  by  enacting  charitable  laws  without  number, 
and  one  seventh  of  her  population  are  paupers. 
It  is  but  the  part  of  wisdom  to  learn  by  her  ex- 
ample. Although  they  have  seen  the  precipice 
before  them  they  have  not  been  able  to  stay  the 
current.  A  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
in  a  report  to  Parliament  ten  years  ago,  say,  "  Our 
poor  rates  partake  of  no  one  quality  which  char- 
acterize true  charity.  Far  from  being  twice  bless- 
ed, they  neither  bless  him  that  gives  nor  him  that 
receives.  To  the  one  they  are  a  constant  source 
of  vexation,  expense  and  imposition,  and  to  the 
other  a  bounty  on  idleness,  indigence  and  vice." 
At  that  time  their  poor  rates  were  something  less 
than  nine  millions  sterling ;  now  it  is  stated  that 
hey  are  more  than  twice  that  sum. 

It  is  no  uncommon  case  that  we  find  in  the  his- 
tory of  rentals  of  the  English  tenants,  that  when 
the  honest  industrious  farmer  hires  a  patch  of 
ground  to  cultivate  for  the  support  of  himself  and 
his  family  he  is  compelled  to  pay  a  poor  tax  upon 
the  same  ground  to  a  greater  amount  than  the 
whole  rent,  and  it  often  goes  to  the  support  of 
those  who  are  as  able  to  labor  as  himself.  Eng- 
land has  not  seemed  to  admit  the  principle  in  her 
poor  laws  that  it  was  "  right  for  charity  to  be  wise? 
or  possible  for  discretion  to  be  charitable."  It  was 
said  of  the  administration  of  the  great  Alfred,  that 
none  of  his  subjects  were  unemployed,  and  hence, 
none  needed  the  aids  of  charity  but  the  sick  and 


22 

the  impotent.  In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  a  law 
was  passed  which  barred  from  the  charities  of  the 
government  all  except  those  who  from  their  age 
or  infirmities  could  not  support  themselves.  Great 
benefits  resulted  to  the  nation  under  it ;  yet  strange 
to  tell,  it  fell  into  disuse.  It  is,  however,  the  only 
principle  which  can  be  adopted  with  success  in  reg- 
ulating any  charitable  code. 

The  increase  of  the  pauper  expenses  within 
this  Commonwealth  has  gone  far  in  advance  of 
the  ratio  of  the  increase  of  population.  From 
1800  to  1820,  while  our  population  had  increased 
but  about  one  to  four,  our  state  pauper  account 
increased  about  twelve  to  four.  Since  then  the 
weekly  allowance  for  state  paupers  has  been  di- 
minished, which  has  diminished  the  amount  of 
state  charges,  but  the  expenses  upon  the  several 
towns  are  increasing  continually.  The  whole 
amount  paid  is  probably  not  much  less  than  halt  a 
million.  This  is  a  subject  in  which  the  property 
and  morals  of  the  community  are  deeply  involved. 
While  viewing  it  every  one  will  lament  the  exist- 
ence of  the  great  cause  of  pauperism  in  our  coun- 
try. Intemperance  is  the  flood-gate  which  opens 
to  it,  and  to  every  vice.  It  is  lamentable  indeed 
that  in  a  land  abounding  with  the  blessings  of 
providence,  a  class  of  men  should  be  found  bru- 
talizing themselves  in  a  way  appalling  to  every 
feeling  of  our  nature,  and  that  too  against  every 
restraint  which  moral  considerations  can  interpose. 
To  the  common  drunkard,  warnings  and  reproofs 
are  like  words  upon  the  desert  air — lost  without  a 
trace.   Ministers  may  preach — moralists  may  write 


23 

— the  press  with  all  its  powers  may  lend  its  aid — - 
moral  societies  may  add  their  influence,  and  tem- 
perate societies  their  example,  still  the  plague  ad- 
vances, and  like  the  overflowing  of  mighty  waters 
is  spreading  its  branches  in  every  direction,  re- 
gardless of  every  obstacle. 

You  may  as  well  attempt  to  secure  your  prop- 
erty against  the  aggressions  of  the  pilferer,  or  the 
implements  of  gaming  from  the  hand  of  the  gam- 
bler, as  the  intoxicating  cup  from  the  lips  of  the 
drunkard.  Each  of  these  should  alike  be  treated 
as  violators  of  the  rights  of  the  community.  The 
law  of  the  Commonwealth  providing  a  penalty 
against  common  drunkards,  which  has  been  in 
your  statute  books  nearly  forty  years,  and  enforc- 
ed in  some  parts  of  the  Commonwealth,  has  been 
but  a  dead  letter  with  us.  It  has  very  seldom  if 
ever  been  enforced  within  our  limits.  If  you  look 
at  our  gaols  and  our  public  prisons  and  inquire 
into  the  history  of  the  wretched  tenants  who  in- 
habit those  dreary  and  life-wasting  receptacles, 
you  will  learn  that  in  nine  cases  in  ten  drunken- 
ness was  the  door  which  opened  upon  them  the 
crimes  that  chain  them  there.  Should  each  county 
within  the  Commonwealth  be  provided  with  a 
house  of  correction,  suitably  appended  with  land 
and  work-shops,  and  the  law  enforced  against  com= 
mon  drunkards,  the  public  would  soon  find  one 
half  of  their  pauper  taxes  saved,  and  a  check  found 
to  that  dangerous  and  wide  spreading  evil. 

Every  successful  effort  to  restrain  the  vices 
which  are  abroad  in  the  land— to  promote  industry 
— to  retrench  unnecessary  expenses — to  diffiise 


24 

useful  information  to  all  classes  of  the  people, 
should  be  placed  among  the  items  of  capital  in 
favor  of  the  farming  interest. 

Without  constant  vigilance  for  the  promotion  of 
these  objects,  no  community  can  expect  continued 
prosperity  and  happiness.  To  the  promotion  of 
these  the  fathers  of  New  England  were  distin- 
guished for  their  attachment,  and  by  an  adherence 
to  them  lived  as  blessings  to  successive  ages. — 
The  dignity  which  they  wore,  was  that  which 
alone  characterizes  true  greatness — an  unwearied 
exertion  for  the  benefit  of  their  fellow-men.  To 
this  end  every  enterprize  was  undertaken,  and 
every  achievement  accomplished.  They  laid  the 
foundation  of  a  mighty  empire,  and  through  the 
veil  of  future  years  saw  the  magnificence  of  its 
superstructure.  Their  virtues  were  steadfast — the 
test  of  trials  rendered  them  more  conspicuously 
bright.  Their  religion  was  practical ;  not  like  the 
meteor  which  astonishes  for  once  and  disappears, 
but  like  the  sun,  genial  and  uniform  in  its  course. 
The  inheritance  they  have  left  is  seen  in  all  we 
have — in  all  we  are.  While  the  soil  which  they 
cultivated  remains,  their  labors  and  their  virtues 
will  never  be  forgotten. 


